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Saturday, December 5, 2015

On any given Sunday

The last time the Browns and Cincinnati Bengals played a
football game, it was in front of a national television audience that saw
first-hand what Cleveland fans had sadly endured for most of the 2015 season up
to that point.

It was nearly five weeks ago on a Thursday night as the
unbeaten Bengals spanked their intra-state rivals, 31-10, in a game that really
wasn’t that close. The game also featured the season starting debut of Johnny
Manziel at quarterback for the Browns.

When the teams meet again Sunday in Cleveland, the no-longer-unbeaten
Bengals are comfortably on top of the AFC North, the Browns are comfortably at
the bottom of the division, their losing streak is at six games and Manziel
will be a spectator.

In that Nov. 1 game, the Browns were in the game from a
scoreboard standpoint, trailing by just four points (14-10) at the
intermission. And then, because the National Football League said they had to,
they played the second half.

The first three of four second-half possessions resulted in
three-and-outs for the Cleveland offense against a suffocating Cincinnati
defense. The fourth, which began at the Bengals’ 37-yard line after a blocked
punt, ended on downs at the Cincinnati 12 in the waning moments.

Those 30 minutes of sleep-inducing football produced two
first downs and 18 total net yards with drives that gained six yards, minus 13
yards (thanks to two sacks), zero yards and 25 yards. It was the epitome of
embarrassingly awful football.

Suffice it to say, Browns fans won’t see a repeat of that
second half on Sunday. Why not? It’s almost incomprehensible a team can
play that badly again, and not because Manziel will watch Austin Davis quarterbacking
the Browns.

In actuality, the Browns play decent football at home
against the Bengals, having won seven of the 16 meetings there since the return
in 1999. Last season’s 30-0 thrashing, retribution for the Browns’ stunning
24-3 victory in Cincinnati earlier in the season, was an anomaly.

Even though they are headed in opposite directions, the
games these teams play against each other are usually a lot closer, which makes
Sunday’s affair that much harder to predict.

Statistics overwhelmingly favor the Bengals, whose goal this
season is to avoid early elimination in the playoffs, something that haven’t
been able to do since Andy Dalton became the starting quarterback as a rookie
in 2011.

The Browns, on the other hand, are just looking to play a
representative, competitive football game in all facets, something they haven’t
done since beginning last season at 7-4. That the Bengals have outscored the
Browns, 61-10, in the last two games is not indicative of what we’ll likely see
Sunday.

What fans probably won’t see is Dalton hooking up again with
tight end Tyler Eifert for three touchdowns as he did in that Nov. 1 game.
Eifert, who has scored 12 times this season, is doubtful with a stinger
(pinched neck nerve) suffered last Sunday. Rookie Tyler Kroft is expected to
start if Eifert can’t make it.

All of which means Dalton probably will rely more on a solid
ground game with grinder Jeremy Hill and elusive Giovani Bernard running behind
a solid offensive line. Hill pounds out the tough yards while Bernard,
dangerous in the run game and pass game, is a big-play weapon.

When he wants to go to the air, Dalton has the luxury of
throwing to one of the best wide receivers in the league in A. J. Green, who
checks in with 909 yards and six touchdowns, and Marlon Brown, 540 yards and
three touchdowns.

Expect them and Mohamed Sanu, whose 25-yard touchdown on a
reverse totally baffled the Cleveland defense in the first game, to run free
most of the afternoon against a Cleveland secondary minus cornerback Joe Haden,
who has missed the last three games with a concussion.

Dalton, seemingly getting better every season, is headed
toward a career year. He is completing a career-best 65.7% of his passes, has
thrown a career-low six interceptions and is on pace to rack up 4,300 yards and
33 touchdowns.

The opportunistic and very active Bengals’ defense,
meanwhile, has allowed a league-low 193 points. The front seven is equally
adept at stopping the run and harassing the quarterback.

Defensive linemen Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap own 16½ of
the team’s 29 sacks, while the secondary, led by free safety Reggie Nelson’s
six swipes, has produced all but one of the club’s 14 interceptions this
season.

The run game is controlled by nose tackle Domata Peko and
linebackers Vontaze Burfict, Rey Maualuga and Vincent Rey. And control is the
perfect word when referencing the Cleveland ground attack.

In the last five games, the Browns have amassed 268 yards
infantry style for a robust average of 53.6 yards per (69 of those yards in the
first Cincy game). Small wonder offensive coordinator John DeFilippo is
skittish about calling a run play.

The Cincinnati defense will face more of a conventional NFL quarterback
this time in Davis, who gets at least a one-game audition to become a more
permanent fixture at the position. That’s good news for the Bengals, who won’t
have far to look to find him as opposed to the more frenetic manner in which
Manziel runs an offense

As for the Cleveland defense, the only positive it could
boast in the first game was two sacks of Dalton. And then you realize the
Browns have only eight sacks in five home games this season (seven against
Tennessee in week two).

The big question Sunday is whether the Browns have
emotionally and psychologically recovered from the devastating way they lost
the Monday night game against the Baltimore Ravens. It will require a totally
different mind-set and extremely short memory.

What they’ll have to concentrate on is payback for that
beatdown in Cincinnati on Nov. 1. Sort of what the Bengals did to them last
season in the second game. And you never know when the on-any-given-Sunday
axiom kicks in.

That’s not going to happen, though, as the Browns’ season
continues to spiral out of control. The losing streak reaches seven games as
Dalton, with or without Eifert, accounts for three touchdowns, one running, and the Cincinnati defense picks off Davis twice and completely shuts down the
running game. Make it: